When we first meet Liora, she’s locked in a cage, slave to a reptilian alien who uses her as star of his intergalactic circus. She’s “a trained killer with the beauty of a goddess.” She’s part human, part Damaclan which gives her superpowers like telepathy and super speed. She can share memories with others and even feel their pain for them. With all these awesome powers, I have to wonder how anyone would be able to make her a slave in the first place, let alone keep her locked up. Continue reading →

Ida Mae, an elderly woman living in rural Utah, falls and breaks her foot. Her friends Tansy and Arlette take care of her, but Ida Mae needs something to occupy her time while she recovers. Fortunately, Arlette’s granddaughter Eden needs someone to infiltrate an assisted living community in order to solve a murder. Continue reading →

At first, John Persons seems like a typical chain-smoking, trench coat-wearing private investigator straight out of a noir movie. He refers to women as broads, dames, skirts, and sometimes birds. However, since this story takes place in the present day, people used to talking about bootylicious selfies have no idea what he’s talking about. Continue reading →

Amberlough takes place in an fantasy world roughly equivalent to Weimar era Germany. It’s part John le Carre, part Cabaret. A fascist candidate who isn’t doing well in the polls fixes an election to beat the female candidate who should have won by a landslide. The inhabitants of Amberlough are worried about this since the Ospies intend to outlaw homosexuality, crack down on drug smuggling, and keep anybody from criticizing them, and they’re willing to use violence to get their way. Sure, Amberlough isn’t perfect. There is a lot of corruption on the police force and there’s certain parts of town you don’t want to visit after night, but the Ospies’ solution for this entails eliminating undesirables and taking away everybody’s freedom, so the cure is worse than the disease. Continue reading →

“It’s not climate change- it’s everything change.” -Margaret Atwood

This is an anthology of science fiction that deals with climate change, or cli-fi as it’s sometimes called. These stories take place all over the world and demonstrate different ways global warming will change human lives in the future. Some of the stories have hopeful endings, some are depressing. Continue reading →

The first story in this collection, “Cruising Through Blueland”, is probably the strongest. Jeri Cristobel enlists the help of a drug dealer to find his brother who’s been kidnapped by a paramilitary organization known as the Blueboys. The Blueboys have the technology to give themselves super speed and super strength, as well as control the weather and trick people with holograms. Their leader is a woman who can force any man to love her using pheromones. They’re a formidable villain indeed, so I was disappointed when they didn’t show up in any of the subsequent stories in this collection. It would have been great to have a story from the point of view of one of the Blueboys, but they inexplicably disappear after the first story. Continue reading →

The year is 2098 and a revolutionary new drug has been invented that allows people to stay young for decades, perhaps forever. This new drug, of course, is reserved for the rich. The poor are condemned to living normal lifespans. It isn’t all bad, though. We’re told that since the rich are living longer, they finally do something about climate change since they realize they’ll now live long enough to see the consequences. Also, some of the poor celebrate the fact that they won’t live forever since it gives life and their art more meaning. Continue reading →

Simon Magus is a figure briefly mentioned in the Bible (Acts 8:9-24). The word simony (paying for influence in the church) is named after him. In the apocryphal Acts of Peter, he’s a powerful sorcerer with the ability to fly. Early church fathers such as Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and Epiphanius considered him to be the father of all heresies. However, some biblical scholars from the 1800s to today think Simon Magus may have actually been the historical epistle writer Paul. Continue reading →

This book has been called Lovecraftian, but I think that’s mostly because any book that’s described as Lovecraftian automatically sells a bunch of copies. (Note to self: Describe next book as Lovecraftian.) Robert W. Chambers’ King in Yellow mythos, which this book is actually based on, is less well known, but I’ve got to say, it’s refreshing to come across a horror novel that isn’t Lovecraftian for once. This book stands on its own, so you don’t need to have read The King in Yellow first, but if you have, you’ll pick up on some cool references. Continue reading →